"Morning light at Ardrossan" --- Sold

I did this painting less about one and a half hours. I was not plan that way, but the light changed too quickly. I have to abandoned completely my usual approach, and just went with the flow. It was a relatively large painting. I even did not have the confidence that I can finish it. But the result was surprising.

In my last post, I talked about my "Off-the-Grid living" project. I must say I did not do it for my philosophy only.  Currently, we live in a relatively big house that I have paid it off 10 years ago, but now I can't afford to pay its $14,000 per year property tax. We have decided to downsize. We are buying a small house brand new, and sell the big house. Everybody says: Austin is such a booming city, and your house will sell in no time. Well, it has been on the market more than 2 months now, and it does not move. I have reduced its price twice, and it did not help. The small house will close tomorrow. Since the bank only gives me a small loan (I am an artist you know), I need to use up almost all my cash to buy it.  We also must to rent the small house out immediately (I need good luck for that as well), otherwise my property tax will shoot up way above $20,000 at the end of the year, not talking about paying the mortgage. After renting out the small house, we will have no place to move if the big house sells. That is the reason I am building my "Off-the-Grid" storage shed like crazy. Sometime, I feel what fool I am --- living in a storage shed but paying $20,000 property tax.

I like the song "Hotel California" by the "Eagles". "We are all just prisoners here of our own device". Modern life is such a trap. "You can check out anytime, but you can never leave". "Welcome to the Hotel California, such lovely place. Such lovely face"...